Lafayette looks to rebound after shoot-out loss to Colgate

November 04, 2012|Paul

Lafayette football coach Frank Tavani said the first telephone call he got on Sunday morning was from Lehigh coach Andy Coen.

Coen was calling to inquire about the status of Lafayette linebacker Dion King, who was taken to the hospital by ambulance Saturday after being injured in the third quarter. After being examined for a possible neck injury, he was able to leave the hospital in Hamilton, N.Y., and return to Easton.

"That demonstrates the class of this league," Tavani said Sunday. "We battle hard, and nobody battles harder than us and Lehigh, and first call I got was from Andy asking about our guy. Andy knows. We have a great relationship. When times weren't so good for him starting out, I was one of his biggest supporters for all the right reasons, too."

Maybe Tavani's second call should have been from Southern Cal Coach Lane Kiffin. The two of them could have done plenty of commiserating.

Tavani still had a bunch of big numbers spinning in his head — and some of them were not very positive. Like the 65 points, 755 total yards and 531 rushing yards Lafayette allowed in a 65-41 Patriot League loss to Colgate.

Kiffin's Trojans, ranked 17th in the country, gave up a school-record 62 points, 730 total yards and 426 rushing yards (also 304 passing) to No. 2 Oregon, which won the PAC-12 game 62-51.

"I didn't see all of it, but I saw some clips," Tavani said. "That was something ridiculous, too."

Everyone knew the possibility of a Lafayette-Colgate shootout was very real, but no one predicted 106 points and 1,297 yards of total offense. "It was a great fan game, if you like scoring," Tavani said.

I asked Tavani about a couple of possible angles. Here's the dialogue.

Q: Was Colgate's offensive line push the catalyst?

A: "No doubt. The only thing that really disrupts it is penetration and we certainly didn't do that. When you have senior leadership in there, and then guys who can make plays whether they block or not … we missed tackles and they made us miss."

Q: Was your linebacker inexperience, which may have been masked in earlier games by their aggressiveness, exposed by Colgate?

A: "Maybe somewhat. They're trying to be disciplined to watch for everything [Colgate] did. They ran some things we had not seen, some blocking schemes and different things. We were trying to prepare for the kitchen sink and we got the bathtub and shower along with it. That's a credit to their preparation. When a machine like that is rolling, it's not just by happenstance."

Q: Did the switch in quarterbacks have anything to do with your slow start?

A: "You have a guy making his third start, trying to make some things happen when it's not there. All in all, [Zach Zweizig] did very well. He scored over 80 percent on a grade. He made some mistakes, but he's getting better. He does a good job of learning from mistakes. He overthrew some, but I'd rather see him overthrow than underthrow."

Q: Was Colgate too much for you physically?

A: "I don't think that was the case. We just weren't disciplined enough. We knew who they were reading running certain plays and we're supposed to be square to line of scrimmage and doing what we call slow play. Our guys keep turning, trying to do more than they're assigned to do. You start doing that against them and trouble begins."

Q: Can your scout team adequately simulate an offense with such explosive personnel?

A: "You can simulate the action to a point, but you cannot duplicate the speed of the game. Kyle Ohradzansky is very good at running that kind of thing — that's sort of what he ran in high school. I was impressed watching him. We played disciplined. But the very same things that we played disciplined in practice, it was a different story in the game."

Despite the problems, Tavani said, "To dwell on it is only going to impede the next task at hand, to play at Fordham. It's a two-game season and still could be successful for our seniors, who want to leave it the way they found it. Right now it's one game: Fordham. We won't stop fighting. I won't let that happen."

For more about Lafayette, see Reinhard's blog at http://www.themorningcall.com/sportstalk.